AeroVanti founder convicted of defrauding Medicare during pandemic

Patrick Britton-Harr, founder of the AeroVanti jet membership service, has been convicted of defrauding Medicare during the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal jury in Maryland found the 42-year-old Annapolis resident guilty of five counts of healthcare fraud and one count of transactional money laundering, according to Private Jet Card Comparisons.

The conviction carries no direct implication for current or former AeroVanti members seeking reimbursement or disputing charges, as the healthcare fraud scheme was separate from the jet membership operation. However, it adds to the legal jeopardy facing Britton-Harr, who was separately convicted in June 2026 on six counts of wire fraud involving the AeroVanti private jet service scheme.

The Medicare fraud scheme

Prosecutors said Britton-Harr fraudulently billed Medicare $18.7 million for respiratory pathogen panel tests — known as RPP tests, which screen for respiratory pathogens — that nursing home residents did not need and that physicians never ordered. Medicare paid more than $7.2 million of those claims.

The scheme began in 2020 as nursing homes across the United States struggled to obtain COVID-19 testing services during the early months of the pandemic. Britton-Harr offered testing services to nursing homes through his company, Provista Health. His company collected specimens from residents and obtained specimens from other laboratories conducting COVID-19 testing. However, prosecutors said he used those specimens to generate fraudulent Medicare claims for the more expensive RPP tests.

Through Provista Health, Britton-Harr submitted claims for RPP testing that he purportedly conducted at a laboratory he owned in Arizona. Prosecutors said he falsely represented that treating physicians had ordered the extensive tests. During the trial, several physicians testified that they had never ordered an RPP test for any patient throughout their medical careers. In many cases, laboratories allegedly never performed the tests at all.

The government said Britton-Harr generated $18.7 million in fraudulent claims over just six months. According to evidence presented at trial, he also recruited inexperienced employees to carry out the billing scheme.

Use of proceeds

According to the Department of Justice, Britton-Harr used the proceeds to finance an extravagant lifestyle. That included purchasing a $112,500 Porsche 911 and making $25,000 monthly mortgage payments on his waterfront mansion in Annapolis, Maryland.

Prior conviction and AeroVanti losses

The Medicare conviction follows Britton-Harr's June 2026 conviction on six counts of wire fraud involving the AeroVanti private jet service scheme. AeroVanti members and vendors allegedly lost as much as $50 million, according to a former CEO, though the reporting does not specify whether that figure includes all losses or relates only to one phase of the fraud.